Facebook is a big time waster

During the first decade of the 21st century a popular and new word has come into our vocabulary. That word is Facebook. This is the most popular social networking website on the internet. If you haven’t heard about Facebook until reading this, then you must have been in a coma for the last 5 years. There are about 350 million active users on this website. The main idea of Facebook is that you can keep in touch with all your friends around the world who has Facebook. You can send messages to your friend’s electronic wall, put up a status saying something like “Going to the mall, need to get a new pair of shoes” or “it’s finally the weekend! :)”.

In the 350 million users on Facebook, 67% of them are between the ages of 13 -25. More than 35 million users update their status every day. 2.5 billion Photos are added each month. The highest age groups who use Facebook are teenagers. Most of them keep the website running whenever they are using the computer and general teens nowadays are always on the computer, if they aren’t in school/college or when they aren’t asleep. I feel that teens should be focused on their school work or be socializing with their friends in person or exercising. Facebook is just changing the new generation of youngsters completely because the teenage life is one of the most important stages of life and wasting it on Facebook is not encouraging this in anyway. It is also a complete distraction to their mind; like nowadays when all their homework and research are on ICT, they would get diverted into Facebook just to check if there was anything updated among their friends.

Remember back in the good old days, when teens would do their homework handwritten, play sports and hang out with friends. Today, most teens would only speak to their friends on Facebook, while we can see them battling obesity as they stare at their friend’s message on their wall. In summary, teens don’t have a life because they are on Facebook 24/7, except for those who don’t use Facebook or occasionally do.

Facebook is also where people can see the gossip among their friends, virtual arguments, relationship status and updates, who is in whose ‘top friends’, you can become fan of anything, join groups, post pictures and videos, play juvenile games, invite friends to parties or events and a heap more. Mainly, all this would just disturb people into living life to their fullest. It’s not just teens who become addicted even grownups do. An average person spends about 55 minutes on Facebook. This statistic isn’t that bad but some people spend about 3-5 hours. Technology might be taking over people’s lives. The internet is what the youth does almost all the time and other growing social networking sites such as Twitter might become the next Facebook.

Facebook is getting millions of dollars, in fact $300 million in 2008. Creator, Mark Zuckerberg is one young genius to change human lives drastically by changing their social environment. People can also access Facebook through their mobiles and more than 65 million active users access Facebook through their mobiles. Furthermore, people who use Facebook through their mobile phones are 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile phone users. This shows that people who use Facebook on their phones as well as using it on their computer, just can’t stand being away from the website. Facebook is like crack to some folks. I think people should also take a break from Facebook once in a while. This would make them think how life is like without saying what’s on their mind to all their friends on the internet. A break would also make them more active, like socializing in person. This would also help them focus better in school or in work. If they are in school, they might get better grades because they aren’t being distracted. Although about 80% of people who take a break would come back to Facebook within days.

Conversely, the social network does benefit common people. For example, if you are a student and you’re writing an essay on your computer and need advice because you are stuck, you can just go online into Facebook and ask any of your friends who would help. Another way it’s a good service is because it is completely free to contact any of your friends who lives anywhere in the world; this is much better than calling someone on the phone which might be expensive to some people. In spite of all this, I firmly stick to my opinion.

On a whole, my view about the social network being a big time waster is a true fact according to me. Teenagers especially, should spend less time on Facebook and get some sunlight. Adults, who spend their days on Facebook, must be unemployed because they should have so much work to do or they could make this world a much better place by doing something productive! My opinion is not banning Facebook completely because I also agree you should log in sometimes and I recommend should go on for about 45 minutes a day, if you do have Facebook. So, this is my impression of Facebook. I’m sure some part of you agrees with me.

I am so proud of you! You and your friends were very brave to drive so far to express your political opinions. All of my friends are impressed by your maturity and courage. Your article is very well written--you take after your dad when it comes to writing. Oma

Yes, yes and YES! This is such a huge argument now about the "lost generation" that 'we' are. It really did all start with Facebook.. I agree there are benefits to staying connected via social media, but like you said, for some its like an addiction to crack. I also agree it can be a huge waste of time - rather than going out and doing things, people read about it. A well balanced essay with great points!

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